The part about the CNN camera crew is sickening.
Posted in full with Dahr's permission (posted at end). If you would like to donate to this excellent reporter, please go
here"Here comes “The Freedom”"
My friend from Baquba visited me yesterday. He brought the usual giant lunch of home cooked food he always brings when he comes to see me. I’m still eating it, actually. I had it again for dinner tonight. Ah, the typical Iraqi meal.
He owns four large tents, and rents them to people in his city to use at funeral wakes, marriage parties, tribal negotiation meetings and to cover gardens, among other things.
During the Anglo-American invasion of his country back in the spring of 2003, when refugees from Baghdad sought shelter from the falling bombs, many of the families inundated his city. After his house was filled with refugees, he let others use his tents, for free of course.
Refugees from Fallujah are using them now.
At least 35 US soldiers have died in Iraq today. 31 of them died when a Chinook went down near the Jordanian border. At least four others died in clashes in the al-Anbar province. A patrol on the airport road was bombed, destroying at least one military vehicle. The military hasn’t released any casualty figures on that one yet.
“Bring ‘em on,” said George Bush quite some time ago, when the Iraqi resistance had begun to pick up the pace.
Today, during a press conference he spoke about the upcoming elections in Iraq.
“Clearly there are some who are intimidated,” he said, “I urge alls (not a typo) people to vote.”
Let me describe the scene on the ground here in “liberated” Iraq.With the “elections” just three days away, people are terrified. Families are fleeing Baghdad much as they did prior to the invasion of the country. Seeking refuge from what everyone fears to be a massive onslaught of violence in the capital city, huge lines of cars are stacked up at checkpoints on the outer edges of the city.
Policemen and Iraqi soldiers are trying to convince people to stay in the city and vote.
Nobody is listening to them.
Whereas Baghdad is filled with Fallujah refugees, now villages and smaller cities on the outskirts of Baghdad are filling up with election refugees.Yet these places aren’t safe either. In Baquba attacks on polling stations are a near daily occurrence. Mortar attacks are common on polling stations even as far south as Basra. A truck bomb struck a Kurdish political party headquarters in a small town near Mosul, killing 15 people, wounding twice that many. A string of car bombs detonated at polling stations in Kirkuk, which was already under an 8pm-5am curfew, killing 10 Iraqis.
Here in Baghdad, although the High Commission for Elections in Iraq has yet to announce their locations, schools which are being converted into polling stations are already being attacked.
Iraqis who live near these schools are terrorized at the prospect.
“They can block the whole city and people cannot move,” says a man speaking to me on condition of anonymity,
“The city is dead, the people are dead. For what? For these forced elections!”He is angry and frustrated because his street is now blocked as he lives near a small yellow middle school that is going to be used as a polling station.
Nearby some US soldiers are occupying a police station, as usual. One of them saw me taking photos and
tried to confiscate my camera.It didn’t matter that I showed him my press badge. After some talking he let me
delete the photos and move on, camera in hand.
Sand barriers block the end of a street, the school where the insides are already in disrepair sits just behind them.
At least 90 streets in Baghdad are now closed down by huge sand and/or concrete barriers and razor wire. The number is growing daily.
“Now I’m afraid mortars will hit my home if the polling station is attacked,” he adds. He’ll be moving across town to stay at a relative’s house, which is not near one of the dreaded polling stations.
An owner of a small grocery shop nearby is just as concerned. He had to negotiate with soldiers to have them leave an opening on the end of the barrier so people could access his place of business.
“I’m already living off my food ration, and have little business,” he says while pointing at the deserted street, “Now who wants to come near my shop? All of us are afraid, and all of us are suffering now.”
A tired looking guard standing nearby named Salman chimes in on the conversation.
“I would be crazy to vote, it’s so dangerous now,” he says with a cigarette dangling from his hand, “Besides, why vote? Of course Allawi will stay in. The Americans will make it so.”A contact of mine just returned from spending a week in Fallujah. We shared some of the food brought from my friend in Baquba.
“I’d been in Fallujah for a week and all I’d seen was tough military tactics,” he tells me,
“They are arresting people and putting them in these trucks, blindfolded and tied up. Everywhere I looked all I saw was utter devastation.”He spoke with many families who told him one horror story after another, death after death after death.
“Then today, the military brings in a dozen Humvees and ground troops to basically seal off a small area near a market,” he continues, “In the middle of them is a CNN camera crew filming troops throwing candy to kids and these guys in orange vests start cleaning the streets around them.” He laughs while holding up his arms and says,
“I’d never seen those guys anywhere in the city before. I don’t know where they came from.” After a pause to take a drink of soda he adds, “I’d never seen any boots on the ground at all, and all of the sudden there are all these marines standing around like everything was ok. It was the first time I’d seen any soldier not in a Humvee or a Bradley. I was really surprised.”
“All of it was 100% staged. Good PR before the election,” he says. Then in a reference to mainstream America he adds, “Fallujah is fine, now go back to sleep.”http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000186.php#more====
News From Inside Iraq
Weary of the overall failure of the US media to accurately report on the realities of the war in Iraq for the Iraqi people and US soldiers, Dahr Jamail went to Iraq to report on the war himself.
His dispatches were quickly recognized as an important media resource and he is now writing for the Inter Press Service, The NewStandard and many other outlets. His reports have also been published with The Nation, The Sunday Herald and Islam Online, to name just a few. Dahr's dispatches and hard news stories have been translated into Polish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese and Arabic. On the radio, Dahr is a special correspondent for Flashpoints and reports for the BBC, Democracy Now!, and numerous other stations around the globe.
Dahr has spent a total of 8 months in occupied Iraq as one of only a few independent US journalists in the country. Dahr uses the DahrJamailIraq.com website and his popular
mailing list to disseminate his dispatches.
Get more information about Dahr in his
interview in Newtopia Magazine.
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/===
Permission granted to post in full:
----Original Message Follows----
From: Dahr Jamail
Reply-To: xxx@dahrjamailiraq.com
To: xxx@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Contact From the Dahr Jamail Iraq Web Site
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 13:37:37 +0300
Thanks a lot xxx,
Please post whatever of my work you like and keep up the great work.
Best,
Dahr
website@dahrjamailiraq.com wrote:
>The following message was sent to you from a visitor to
>DahrJamailIraq.com. The person entered: xxx@hotmail.com
>as the return email address. If you reply to this message, it will
>be sent to xxx@hotmail.com.
>
>******
>Hello Dahr,
>
>First I need to tell you how AWED I am of the good work you\'re
>doing in keeping us informed of what\'s really going on in Iraq- not
>that we would believe the mainstream media for one minute but your
>information is VERY important to the antiwar movement.
>
>I would like your permission to repost some of your writings at the
>reasonably Leftist web-site www.democraticunderground.com. Most of
>the posters there are passionately antiwar and have been fighting
>this madness for years.
>
>I am trying to fight that creeping propaganda from the
>right-wing. I promise to give you FULL credit with a link taking
>people back to your site (which I\'ve already been extensively
>advertising). The site has over 60,000 registered users (though I\'d
>warrant only about 2000 are active) and many lurkers. Would you
>please allow me to repost a few of your blog entries in their
>entirety? I am determined to fight the sickening propaganda that
>there\'s any sort of an \"election\" in Iraq.
>
>God bless you whether you say yes or no. You are a hero in my eyes.
>
>Sincerely and gratefully,
>
> ((me))
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